Cover story

The United Kingdom has voted to leave the European Union. Now apart from managing the inevitable turmoil that will ensue, the EU must confront the risk of a domino effect as it assesses how this could have happened and how to prevent further defections.

Europe

The social unrest France has been experiencing bears many resemblances to May ’68. Unlike then, however, the current populism is taking hold in a context that sees traditional political parties and blocs declining.

US Elections

Americans are fed up. Now all the focus is on Donald Trump, who is transforming American politics by touching tender nerves and re-exalting a side of the American psyche that has come to be considered taboo.

Democracy

The right to express oneself is a cornerstone of democratic society. But information can also be used to manipulate and coerce. The dilemma requires an ethical approach that remains vigilant against inevitable pitfalls.

Featured briefing

Everyone wants to fix the environment and stave off climate change, and the Paris Agreement was a step in the right direction. Unfortunately, many crucial economic and geopolitical elements have been left out of the equation.

Europe now has a program that hopes to achieve zero waste. By reusing, recycling and planning for the future, a virtuous circle can be established that will benefit both the environment and the economy.

In an attempt to wrestle with the unprecedented problem of regulating carbon emissions, the European Court of Justice has come up with a multi-pronged strategy that includes invalidating the industrial cap.

Culture

Unfortunately, in order to destroy an enemy, human beings have learned that it is not always enough to destroy functional structures. Getting rid of cultural heritage is also an effective weapon for subjugating another nation.

The theft, illegal trafficking and destruction of cultural patrimony are problems that have existed as long as civilizations have been fighting. Today states are attempting to band together to minimize this blight.

New frontiers

The gathering of information features more and more in the field of research and development of new medicines. Considering the quantity of data and the numerous opportunities for crosschecking, its management goes far beyond the national and must necessarily be dealt with globally.

Megaphone

Europe’s role in world affairs continues to wane. Nevertheless, it remains a cultural superpower. What’s needed is an intelligent communication strategy to highlight the best of what Europe has to offer the world.

Warming bloopers

Many sites across the world are at risk from climate change. But some governments would prefer not to have too much publicity in that regard, lest the gathering reality have a negative impact on tourism.

Widescreen

Talking heads

An “end of empire” feel is floating upon the Elysée Palace in Paris. As time goes by, the last months of François Hollande’s presidential term are revealing themselves as an immense waste of time, skills, and missed opportunities: the current “chienlit” (a pun, meaning both “dog bed” and “shit in the bed,” used to describe social havoc), which spread throughout the public services with forceful actions aimed at severing the fuel distribution by blocking access to oil refineries, massive strikes – especially in rail transport – and continuous popular demonstrations and protests that always end up in acts of vandalism, shows how the power has weakened. Still, the French crisis, coupled with the Islamist terrorism emergency (and which, apart from the economic aspect, involves general issues such as national identity, immigration and the relationship with the European Union) should be correctly interpreted.

World money

here are some fundamental issues affecting the world economy, which no one wants to look at because no one is prepared to fix. As a result every major summit seeks to work around the biggest problems with an array of compromises.

Chosen words

“As predicted, Scotland was voting strongly to stay in, to the extent that, even with a partial count, it was obvious what the Scots wanted. Less predictably, Northern Ireland and Wales where voting strongly to stay in. The unexpected results were from England."

Numbers

Since acquired immune deficiency syndrome, better know as AIDS, swept across the globe, doctors, scientists and governments have struggled to contain it and find a cure. It hasn’t been easy, but there is hope.